Prof. Dr. Sohan Raj Tater
It appears from the study of Jaina Biology that heredity is the tendency of individuals to resemble their progenitors [85] or the tendency like to beget like. That is to say, the individuals resemble their progenitors structurally with some traits. Further it is stated in Bhagavatī Sūtra that the united body of the mother and father in the child lasts as long as its worldly body exists, but it comes to an end with the perish of the physique of the child or last after getting weaker and weaker. [86]
Each new generation of organisms from two sensed to five sensed closely resembles their progenitors as is evidenced by the fact of the classification of animals in Jaina Biology on the basis of the senses and structures [87] and certain distinctive parental characteristics which appear frequently in successive generations of a given family tree.
Although the resemblances between parents and offsprings are close, they are usually not exact. The offsprings of a particular set of parents differ from each other and from their parents in many respects to different degrees due to karma. [88]
These variations are characteristics of living things. [89] According to Biology some variations are inherited, that is they are caused by segregation of heredity factors amongst the offspring other variations are not inherited but are due to the effects of the karma or of temperature, moisture, food, light or other factors in the environment on the development of the organism [90] as biology explains.
Doctoral Thesis, JVBU